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Description:
Writers learn the most about writing when they share and reflect on their writing. In classrooms, this is most commonly done through writing conferences as part of the revision stage. This strategy can occur with pairs, with small groups, or with the teacher, the social benefits of sharing writing improves writing.

Advantages:
*They involve a non-threatening audience of peers

*Peers or teacher can provide immediate feedback or can immediately ask for clarifications

*They can promote positive attitudes about writing and increased motivation to revise

*Students experience a wide range of writing abilities and topics
*develop writing fluency and expression using writer's workshop strategies.

Disadvantages:
*Can't be used in whole class instruction as easily . However, teachers will have the most success if they model conference behaviors with the whole class. Class discussions can focus on what sorts of comments and actions are useful and constructive, and what sorts of behaviors are less helpful to the author sharing his or her work.
*Pertains only to writing

ELL:
*Writing instruction with new language learners should be done carefully, slowly and with deep consideration of the student's abilities.
*In a smaller groups, ELL students can receive closer more detailed feedback on assignments.

Cite:
Reading Rockets | Classroom Strategy. (2017, December 20). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies

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Kindergarten Writing Conference: Promote Self Expression with Writers' Workshop (Virtual Tour)

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Description:
Reading guides can assist with developing students' comprehension. They help students navigate reading material, especially difficult chapters or nonfiction reading. Students respond to a teacher-created written guide of prompts as they read an assigned text. Reading Guides help students to comprehend the main points of the reading and understand the organizational structure of a text.

Advantages:
*It can be developed for a variety of reading material and reading levels.

*It helps guide students through what they are about to read, and helps students monitor their comprehension while reading.

*It helps students to follow the main points of the reading and understand the organization of a text.

*It helps readers to think actively as they read and have a purpose for reading.

Disadvantages:
*Mainly teacher focused

ELL:
*Vary the difficulty of questions on the reading guide. For some students, include more questions about implicit information. For less experienced students, begin by providing more questions featuring explicit information.

*If the child cannot read at all or has extremely poor reading, allow the child access to the book or reading material via recording, having someone read it to them, or digital speech. Remember, written speech is different than spoken speech. The child profits from practicing the comprehension of spoken speech

*If the student has trouble with working memory, teach them to take notes on post it notes in the book, so they can refer back.

Cite:
Reading Rockets | Classroom Strategy. (2017, December 20). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies

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Question Chart: Improving Reading Comprehension through Questioning

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Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) 

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Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) 

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Description:
The Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) is a comprehension strategy that guides students in asking questions about a text, making predictions, and then reading to confirm or refute their predictions. The DRTA process encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers, enhancing their comprehension.

Advantages:
*It encourages students to be active and
thoughtful readers.

*It activates students' prior knowledge.

*It teaches students to monitor their understanding of the text as they're reading.

*It helps strengthen reading and critical thinking skills.

Disadvantages:
*Only used during the reading instead of before, during, and after.

ELL:

*The reading should be broken into small sections so that the students have time to think about and process information.

*The amount of reading should be adjusted to fit the purpose and the difficulty of the text.

*Writing may be included as part of the DRTA. As students become more comfortable with this strategy, have each student write predictions in a learning log or on a piece of paper. Then, in small groups, students can discuss their predictions and share their thinking processes. Next ask students to write summary statements about how their predictions compared to the passage.

Cite:
Reading Rockets | Classroom Strategy. (2017, December 20). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies

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Before, During and After Questions: Promoting Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking

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Description:
The listen-read-discuss strategy helps students comprehend text. Before reading, students listen to a short lecture delivered by the teacher. The students then read a text selection about the topic. After reading, there is a large group discussion or students engage in small group discussions about the topic. During the discussion, students compare and contrast the information from the lecture with the information they read.

Advantages:
*It helps students comprehend material presented orally.

*It builds students' prior knowledge before they read a text.

*It engages struggling readers in classroom discussions.

*This simple, flexible strategy can be used across all curriculum areas with almost any text.

Disadvantages:
*Cannot be used for individual instruction

ELL:
*Include a graphic organizer of the information you discuss.

*Choose specific text you feel your students lack prior knowledge about and need more support with as your LRD text.

Cite:
Reading Rockets | Classroom Strategy. (2017, December 20). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies

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Description:
Choral reading is reading aloud in unison with a whole class or group of students. Choral reading helps build students' fluency, self-confidence, and motivation. Because students are reading aloud together, students who may ordinarily feel self-conscious or nervous about reading aloud have built-in support.

Advantages:
*It can provide less skilled readers the opportunity to practice and receive support before being required to read on their own.

*It provides a model for fluent reading as students listen.

*It helps improve the ability to read sight words.

Disadvantages:
*May not benefit more advanced
students-specially helps lower readers.
*Only used during the actual reading
*Students may be shy at first
ELL:
*Coral reading can assist ELL  learning by allowing students to hear fellow classmates read at the same time.
* It helps build students' fluency, self-confidence, and motivation, because students are reading aloud together.
*To benefit ELL students you  can read passages to build background knowledge on specific topics being covered in class.
*Teachers may wish to pair students of varying abilities together and assign each student a different section of the passage to read.

Cite:
Reading Rockets | Classroom Strategy. (2017, December 20). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies

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Description:
Reader's theater is a strategy for developing reading fluency. It involves children in oral reading through reading parts in scripts. In using this strategy, students do not need to memorize their part; they need only to reread it several times, thus developing their fluency skills. The best reader's theater scripts include lots of dialogue.

Advantages:
*It promotes fluency.

*It helps readers learn to read aloud with expression.

*It helps build reading confidence.

Disadvantages:
*Some students may be reluctant to speak in front of the class at first.
*Limited to small group participation only

ELL:
*Readers theatre can be done with different types of scripts.
*To promote learning and inclusion for ELL students you may want to use scripts from their culture/background
*Use easier scripts with fewer words for younger or struggling readers.

*Write the script (or the student's part of the script) with print that is easy to read i.e. larger or in preferred font.
Supply Braille scripts when needed.

*Give the student their part in advance. Encourage them to practice at home with their parents

Have students read parts together.

*Allow advanced students to write parts of the script.

*When assigning roles, be sensitive to students' individual needs. *Assign roles accordingly; provide extra, individual practice if needed.

Cite:
Reading Rockets | Classroom Strategy. (2017, December 20). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies

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Reader's Theater: Building Fluency and Expression

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Description:
Audio-assisted reading is an individual or group reading activity where students read along in their books as they hear a fluent reader read the book on an audio recording (audiotape, audio book, or iPod). As confidence and reading skills develop, students read the same passage or text without the assistance of the audio recording.

Advantages:
*It helps to build fluency skills including proper phrasing and expression.

*It helps students improve sight word recognition.

*It helps build comprehension.

It allows students to hear the tone and pace of a skillful reader.

*It's a flexible strategy that can be used across content areas.

Disadvantages:
*Only used during the actual reading instead of before, during, and after.
*Cannot be used during whole class instruction.
*Must have technology available

ELL:
*This strategy is beneficial for ELL students who may be having trouble with pronunciation of words. The recording will demonstrate proper pronunciation and expression/ porosity
*Can be used to record students' reading to practice fluency. With this they are given the opportunity  to hear how they sound reading, and compare it to that of the recording.
*Students needing more support can be asked to listen to the tape and read along with it, reading just a little slower so that they are "echoing" the taped reading.

*Students who are more skilled readers can try to stay one or two syllables ahead so that the tape is an "echo".

*Teachers may wish to have students use the computer to listen to online-audio readings or MP3 readings for this activity.

Cite:
Reading Rockets | Classroom Strategy. (2017, December 20). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies

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Description:
vocabulary and comprehension strategy used to familiarize students with the vocabulary of a new topic or book. Teachers provide students with a list of terms or concepts from reading material. Students place words into different categories based on each word's meaning. Categories can be defined by the teacher or by the students. When used before reading, concept sorts provide an opportunity for a teacher to see what his or her students already know about the given content. When used after reading, teachers can assess their students' understanding of the concepts presented.

Advantages:
*It allows teachers to introduce the new vocabulary which students will see in the assigned text.

*It provides teachers with information about how much the students already know about a topic.

*It familiarizes students with the vocabulary of a new topic or book.

Disadvantages:
*Used only before reading

ELL:
*This will help students build comprehension to more advanced vocabulary.
*Differentiate concept definition description if students are struggling.
*Teachers may wish to have students write the completed sorts to help solidify learning.

*Have students work in pairs or in small groups.

*Provide students with the category headers and ask students to sort only the examples.

*Provide extra blank blocks for students to fill in their own examples.

*Use pictures along with the words. For example, a picture could be provided for each of the words in the Math example above.

*Be aware of cognitive and cultural diversity as you evaluate how students sort the cards.

*Words on the card should be printed clearly so they are easily readable by all students. Large letters and contrast between the letters and the background are helpful.

Cite:
Reading Rockets | Classroom Strategy. (2017, December 20). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies

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Description:
An anticipation guide is a comprehension strategy that is used before reading to activate students' prior knowledge and build curiosity about a new topic. Before reading, students listen to or read several statements about key concepts presented in the text; they're often structured as a series of statements with which the students can choose to agree or disagree. Anticipation guides stimulate students' interest in a topic and set a purpose for reading.

Advantages:
*stimulate students' interest in a topic and set a purpose for reading.

*They teach students to make predictions, anticipate the text, and verify their predictions.

*They connect new information to prior knowledge and build curiosity about a new topic.

Disadvantages:
*Can only be used before reading
*May be difficult for younger learners

ELL:
*To assist ELL learners, explicitly model what they should put on their guide
*Teachers may assign different reading passages about the same topic based upon reading skills.

*Color code columns so that the child can clearly tell the difference between the "before" and "after" column.

*Use simple sentences so that the student focuses on the content, rather than understanding the sentence. Example: "Ringworm and athlete's foot are caused by fungi" to "Fungi causes ringworm and athlete's foot."

Cite:
Reading Rockets | Classroom Strategy. (2017, December 20). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies

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Description:
Very young learners are developing their understanding of the alphabetic principle — the understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Teachers can help students develop this understanding through lots of fun activities that help students explore the alphabet letters and sounds.

Advantages:
*Letter naming is a strong predictor of later reading success

*Learning letter names helps a child learn letter sounds

*It helps students develop their understanding of the alphabetic principle

Disadvantages:
*Used only in EARLY literacy
*Does not work with older students

ELL:
*This can be used to help ELL students who are very young, and may not receive exposure to the English alphabet
*Focus on learning letters as appose to while words at this stage in learning
*Begin with a very simple, plain alphabet font like Zaner Bloser. As children become more familiar with letter shapes, progress to different fonts that may present letters slightly differently. For example, consider how the letters /a/, /g/, /t/ appear in different fonts.

*Decide how many letters a child or group should work with at one time. Very emergent learners should begin with fewer letters; other students can manage working with more letters at one time.

Cite:
Reading Rockets | Classroom Strategy. (2017, December 20). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies

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Alphabet In My Mouth!: Reviewing Alphabet Letter-Sounds with a Fun Song

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Description:
Students will use prior knowledge and background experiences, readers connect the author's writing with a personal picture. Through guided visualization, students learn how to create mental pictures as they read.
Advantages:
*Generating an image while reading requires that the reader be actively engaged with the text.
*Creating mental images while reading can improve comprehension.
Disadvantages:
*Images can be misinterpreted by students
*You may have student who is visually impaired.

Cite
Reading Rockets | Launching Young Readers. (2018, February 15). Retrieved February 20, 2018, from http://www.readingrockets.org/

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Visualize It!: Improving Comprehension through Visualizing Comparisons (Virtual Tour)

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Description
Teachers verbalize aloud while reading a selection orally. . The purpose of the think-aloud strategy is to model for students how skilled readers construct meaning from a text.
What's the goal?
Verbalizations include describing things they're doing as they read to monitor their comprehension.
Advantages:
*Helps students learn to monitor their thinking as they read and improves their comprehension.
*Teaches students to re-read a sentence, read ahead to clarify, and/or look for context clues to make sense of what they read.
*Slows down the reading process and allows students to monitor their understanding of a text.

Disadvantages:
*Students could copy what others are saying.
*Students do not think on their own.

Cite
Reading Rockets | Launching Young Readers. (2018, February 15). Retrieved February 20, 2018, from http://www.readingrockets.org/

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Think Alouds: Modeling Ways to Think About Text (Virtual Tour)

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Description:
The Partner Reading strategy allows students to take turns reading and provide each other with feedback as a way to monitor comprehension.
Advantages:
*It allows students to take turns reading and provide each other with feedback as a way to monitor comprehension.
*It provides a model of fluent reading and helps students learn decoding skills by offering positive feedback.
*It provides direct opportunities for a teacher to circulate in the class, observe students, and offer individual remediation.
Disadvantages:
*Students may misinterpret information.
*Answers may biased
*Partners skill level may vary.
*lack of participation may be shown through one partner and not the other.

Cite
Reading Rockets | Launching Young Readers. (2018, February 15). Retrieved February 20, 2018, from http://www.readingrockets.org/

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Pal Reading: Developing Fluency and Comprehension with Paired Reading

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Reading a favorite book to a partner and taking turns asking and answering questions provides students with an opportunity to practice fluency and promotes the development of comprehension skills. For more information go to full lesson plan at http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/balancedliteracydiet/Recipe/00146/.

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Description:
Students take what they learned and paraphrase those ideas into a smaller unit.
Advantages:
*It helps students learn to determine essential ideas and consolidate important details that support them.
8It enables students to focus on key words and phrases of an assigned text that are worth noting and remembering.
8It teaches students how to take a large selection of text and reduce it to the main points for more concise understanding.
*Works with all age levels
Disadvantages:
*Important points may be missed
*Inappropriate judgment straggles might be used
*Students may misunderstand questions

Cite
Reading Rockets | Launching Young Readers. (2018, February 15). Retrieved February 20, 2018, from http://www.readingrockets.org/

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Summary Map: Scaffolding Summary Writing

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Description:
Sequencing refers to the identification of the components of a story — the beginning, middle, and end — and also to the ability to retell the events within a given text in the order in which they occurred. The ability to sequence events in a text is a key comprehension strategy, especially for narrative texts. Sequencing is also an important component of problem-solving across subjects.
What's the goal?
Sequencing is one of many skills that contributes to students' ability to comprehend what they read.
Advantages:
*Boots comprehension, especially for narrative texts.
*Sequence structures help students of varying abilities organize information and ideas efficiently.
*Sequencing is also an important component of problem-solving across the curriculum, including science and social studies
Disadvantages:
*Mainly used for only promoting Literacy

Cite
Reading Rockets | Launching Young Readers. (2018, February 15). Retrieved February 20, 2018, from http://www.readingrockets.org/

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Greedy Cat: Retelling a Story Sequence to Build Comprehension

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Description:
Think-pair-share is a collaborative learning strategy where students work together to solve a problem or answer a question about an assigned reading. Students are instructed to think, get a partner, and share their thoughts
Advantages:
*It helps students to think individually about a topic or answer to a question.
*It teaches students to share ideas with classmates and builds oral communication skills.
*It helps focus attention and engage students in comprehending the reading material.
Disadvantages:
*Students may get loud during activity.
*Classroom management may be hard to control.

Cite
Reading Rockets | Launching Young Readers. (2018, February 15). Retrieved February 20, 2018, from http://www.readingrockets.org/

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Think-pair-share is a collaborative learning strategy where students work together to solve a problem or answer a question about an assigned reading.

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Description
Paragraph shrinking strategy allows each student to take turns reading, pausing, and summarizing the main points of each paragraph.
What's the goal?
Students provide each other with feedback as a way to monitor comprehension
Advantages:
*It helps students develop their reading comprehension skills.
*It allows each student to take turns reading, pausing, and summarizing the main points of each paragraph.
Disadvantages:
*There is a possibility a student could give a wrong answer to the group.
Sources:
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/paragraph_shrinking

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Description
Students meet with members from other groups who are assigned the same aspect, and after mastering the material, return to the "home" group and teach the material to their group members. With this strategy, each student in the "home" group serves as a piece of the topic's puzzle and when they work together as a whole, they create the complete jigsaw puzzle.
What's the goal?
The goal is to use cooperative learning to help students obtain as much information as possible. We are working to improve compression.
Advantages:
*It helps build comprehension.
*It encourages cooperative learning among students.
*It helps improve listening, communication, and problem-solving skills.
Disadvantages:
*It may be hard for those who do not access the internet to research over certain topics as much as those who do.
*Team members must work together to benefit from this strategy.

Sources Used:
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/jigsaw

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Description
A story map is a strategy that uses a graphic organizer to help students learn the elements of a book or story. By identifying story characters, plot, setting, problem and solution, students read carefully to learn the details. There are many different types of story map graphic organizers. The most basic focus on the beginning, middle, and end of the story. More advanced organizers focus more on plot or character traits.
What's the goal?
The goal of a story map is to help students organize stories to increase comprehension.
Advantages:
*They improve students' comprehension
*They provide students with a framework for identifying the elements of a story
*They help students of varying abilities organize information and ideas efficiently

*Story maps can be used in various subjects
*Story maps can be used to help students solve open-ended math problems. Or students can use the story map to create their own math problems.
Disadvantages:
*They could possibly discourage critical thinking
*Relationships on concept maps may be hard or difficult to interpret.
Sources Used:
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/story_maps

Apa Format
| Classroom Strategy. (2017, December 20). Retrieved February 16, 2018, from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/story_maps

Video Link:

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Retelling Glove: The Five Elements of a Good Story Retell

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Using a retelling glove the class discusses what happened in a read-aloud story. For more information go to full lesson plan at http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/balancedliteracydiet/Recipe/50636/. Also go to http://www.LitDiet.org for hundreds of additional free lesson plans and for virtual tours of classrooms.

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Description:
Careful pairing of reading with phonics study gives children a chance to apply what they Are learning about letters and sounds to the reading of words and stories. Matching Books to Phonics involves presenting books that have familiar sight words and a lot of longer words that children may not be able to read in isolation but can read with picture and meaning cues.
What's The Goal?
The goal of phonics instruction is to help children use the alphabetic system to read and spell words, it's important to provide students with this practice.
Advantages:
*There are several ways to match books to readers ex. by reader interest, by reading level, and by the phonics feature
*Provides students with phonetic practice
*Can be used for individual projects and assignments, but also as whole class lessons.
*Students can apply what they are learning about letters and sounds, and apply it to literature
*Very good for learners who are just beginning to read.
* Promotes phonological awareness
Disadvantages:
*Oriented around younger children, which makes it harder to use in upper grades.
*Focus area is limited to Literacy, Matching Books to Phonetics does not integrate other subject matters easily.
*Must be practiced often

Sources Used for Assignment:
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/matching_books_to_phonics_features

APA Format:
Matching Books to Phonics Features | Classroom Strategy. (2017, December 20). Retrieved February 01, 2018, from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/matching_books_to_phonics_features

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Letter Sounds with Starfall: Using the SMART Board during Shared Reading

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By integrating technology and literacy, students gain access to literacy websites, like Starfall and develop their phonemic awareness. Go to http://www.LitDiet.org for hundreds of free lesson plans and for virtual tours of classrooms.